ciàula

Sicilian

na ciàula (sense 1.1) — a crow

Etymology

Unknown. Compare Neapolitan ciàula, Tarantino ciola, Friulian çore. Compare also Romanian cioară, Albanian sorrë.

Pasqualino suggests cià, onomatopoeia imitating the bird's sound, +‎ -ula (diminutive suffix), and compares it to the similarly formed Latin grāculus (“jackdaw”).

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

ciàula f (plural ciàuli)

1. Various black cawing birds:
   • 1785 – 1787, Giovanni Meli, Don Chisciotti e Sanciu Panza 7.71:

     ’Avi […] li capiddi a culuri di li ciauli […].

     She has hair of the colour of crows.

   2. crow (Corvus corone)
   3. magpie (Pica pica)

      Synonym: carcarazza

   4. jackdaw (Coloeus monedula)
2. (figuratively) chatterbox (talkative person)

Descendants

• → Maltese: ċawl

References

• Traina, Antonino (1868) “ciàula”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, page 845
• Accademia della Crusca (p. 1961), “ciàula”, in Grande dizionario della lingua italiana (in Italian), volume 3, page 115